 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "KPCC" FM – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(December 2019) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
 | |
| Broadcast area | Greater Los Angeles |
|---|---|
| Frequency | 89.3MHz (HD Radio) |
| Branding | LAist 89.3 |
| Programming | |
| Language | English |
| Format | Public radio/News |
| Subchannels | HD2:KCMPsimulcast (Alternative rock) |
| Affiliations | American Public Media NPR Public Radio Exchange |
| Ownership | |
| Owner |
|
| Operator | Southern California Public Radio (American Public Media Group) |
| History | |
First air date | August 2, 1957; 68 years ago (1957-08-02) |
Former call signs | KPCS (1957–1979) |
Call sign meaning | Pasadena City College |
| Technical information[1] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 51701 |
| Class | B |
| ERP | 600watts |
| HAAT | 891 meters (2,923 ft) |
Transmitter coordinates | 34°13′36″N118°03′58″W / 34.22667°N 118.06611°W /34.22667; -118.06611 |
| Translator | See§ Translators and boosters |
| Repeater | See§ Repeaters |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Webcast | Listen Live |
| Website | laist |
KPCC (FM 89.3) – brandedLAist 89.3 – is anon-commercial educationalradio station licensed inPasadena,California. KPCC itself is primarily servingGreater Los Angeles and theSan Fernando Valley; through rebroadcasting and translator stations, KPCC's programming also reaches theSanta Barbara,Coachella Valley,Palm Springs, andVentura County, California areas, and part of theInland Empire area.[2] The station is owned byPasadena City College and operated by theAmerican Public Media Group's Southern California Public Radio (SCPR), in addition to serving as an affiliate forNational Public Radio andPublic Radio Exchange. It originates some of its own shows.[3] The studios are located in Pasadena, and the station transmitter is onMount Wilson.
As of 2023[update], SCPR served "more than 527,000 listeners each week".[4]: 45 It is one of two full NPR members in the Los Angeles area;Santa Monica-basedKCRW is the other.[citation needed]
Pasadena City College has a history in radio back to when it was still Pasadena Junior College, a combined high school and college; in 1934 it began hosting a montly radio show on thePasadena Presbyterian Church stationKPPC (AM).[5]: 34 Pasadena City College's 75th anniversary history book mentions "an experimental program every Monday night in 1942 on KPCS" named "Presenting Pasadena for Pasadena Preferred", produced by the PCC Radio Division and theChronicle.[5]: 55
Pasadena City College opened a radio studio on December 14, 1947,[6] with a studio classroom, engineering room, work room, and reception room, but no transmitter or broadcast license; the studio instead continued to broadcast its programs over other local radio stations,[5]: 70 such as KPPC andKXLA (AM).[5]: 71 The college was also active in television from September 1949, using thePasadena Playhouse, which had its own television department.[5]: 71
The college began its own broadcasts on FM in April 1957 as KPCS, with a transmitter purchased from KWKW.[5]: 71 It used the former KWKW-FM 250-watt transmitter and studio equipment, and a small antenna on the roof of the campus administration building that provided limited coverage. The station was operated by, and for, students who were studying broadcasting at the college.[citation needed] One of the few two-year college stations with an FCC broadcast license, it originally on the air from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., it went to "all day" broadcasting on October 1, 1962.[5]: 71 The original callsign of KPCS stood for "Pasadena City Schools",[5]: 96 but in the meantime the institution operating KPCS had been renamed to Pasedena City College had afterward split into a separate community college district;[citation needed] so the callsign was changed to KPCC at the end of 1971.[5]: 96
During the 1970s and 1980s the station won numerous broadcasting awards.[5]: 96 The radio station and television studio were flooded in the 12-day rainstorm that affected Pasadena in 1983.[5]: 92
Formerly, the station broadcast from a transmitter inOrange County, later fromDowntown Los Angeles (at theFrank Stanton Studios), and on the PCC campus. The station originally broadcast from the campus of Pasadena City College in Pasadena.[citation needed]
KPCC's transmitter and radio tower moved from the C Building at PCC to a higher-powered facility onMount Wilson in 1988.[5]: 115 In 1993, the studios also moved out of the C Building, where they had been confined to a cramped basement, and into the newly built Shatford Library with the television production studios and Media Center,[5]: 92 where the radio studios remained until 2010.[7]
The station expansion, particularly in signal coverage area, led to years of controversy in the 1990s over the station's change in focus from Pasadena-area to Los Angeles regional interest.[5]: 115 However, by the end of the 1990s, KPCC remained a small, student-operatedNational Public Radio station with various music programs and a budget of $300,000.[7]
Around 1999[8][5]: 115 or 2000,[7] Pasadena City College received an offer fromMinnesota Public Radio for MPR to form a new branch, Southern California Public Radio (SCPR), to take over operation of KPCC, with PCC continuing to hold the official broadcast license.[7] SCPR is a not-for-profit organization now controlled byAmerican Public Media Group, parent organization ofMinnesota Public Radio.[4]: 46
PCC's contract with American Public Media permits either side to terminate the arrangement after giving sufficient notice, APM with six months notice and PCC with five years notice after 2015 (effectively making it a 20-year contract with an unlimited option to renew). PCC gets on air recognition and funding for a broadcastinternship program (along with the traditional responsibility of maintainingFCC-related issues as the licensee), while APM controls the station and all the pledges, grants, andcorporate underwriting revenues.[citation needed]
The station is usually identified as a "public service of Pasadena City College" at the top of each hour. Since the APM takeover, PCC student participation has been reduced to internships supported by American Public Media.[citation needed] Under the operation of SCPR, the music and some of the local programming was replaced by network programming. Though there were still internship opportunities for students in technical roles, there were much fewer on-air voice opportunities. In response to this, PCC started an additional, 1 watt, radio station on 88.9 MHz in 1998,[5]: 115 which became known as Lancer Radio, and had an Internet audio stream and a website by 2005.[9]
In March 2010, KPCC moved from the Shatford Library to a 35,000-square-foot (3,300 m2) converted office building on Raymond Avenue in Pasadena, at a cost of $24.5 million, and named the new facilities the Mohn Broadcast Center and Crawford Family Forum.[7]
In February 2018, SCPR, along with the operators of public radio stationsWNYC in New York City andWAMU in Washington, D.C., acquired much of the assets of theblogGothamist and its sister sitesLAist andDCist, using donations from two anonymous donors, and with plans to merge LAist into SCPR's existing studio operations.[8][10]
On January 31, 2023, SCPR announced that the radio stations would move away from using "KPCC" as a brand, and adopt the "LAist" name across all its platforms, including the radio stations. The official call letters for the Pasadena radio station remain KPCC after the re-brand.[8]KPCC rebranded to LAist on February 7, 2023.[citation needed]
Broadcast programming originating at KPCC includes the L.A.-centricAirTalk and film-focusedFilmWeek withLarry Mantle,[11]The Loh Down on Science withSandra Tsing Loh,[12] and pop culture trivia showGo Fact Yourself withJ. Keith van Straaten andHelen Hong.[13]
The stations also carry multiple public radio shows fromNational Public Radio (NPR), thePublic Radio Exchange (PRX), and LAist/SCPR's sister organizationAmerican Public Media (APM).[3]
In 2025, LAist began a news partnership with commercial television stationsKCBS-TV andKCAL-TV.[14] This allowed for resources to be shared between the two stations. This proved useful during the southern California wildfires that year, as the station simulcast KCBS-TV's audio of their wall-to-wall coverage.
Besides a standardanalog transmission, KPCC broadcasts over twoHD Radio channels.[15][needs update?]
KPCC extends its radio programming via full-power satellites KUOR-FMRedlands (89.1 FM),[16]KVLA-FMCoachella (90.3 FM), and KJAIOjai (89.5 FM), as well as low-power translators[needs update] KPCC-FM2West Los Angeles (89.3 FM), KPCC-FM3West Los Angeles (89.3 FM), K210ADSanta Barbara (89.9 FM) and K227BXPalm Springs (93.3 FM). KUOR is licensed to theUniversity of Redlands, while KVLA and KJAI are licensed to American Public Media Group's SCPR.All three of the station's full-power repeaters also broadcast two HD Radio signals.[citation needed]
| Call sign | Frequency | City of license | Facility ID | Class | ERP (W) | Height (m (ft)) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| KVLA-FM | 90.3 FM | Coachella, California | 85911 | A | 340 | 175 m (574 ft) |
| KJAI | 89.5 FM | Ojai, California | 60140 | A | 97 | 403 m (1,322 ft) |
| KUOR-FM | 89.1 FM | Redlands, California | 69217 | A | 35 | 815 m (2,674 ft) |
| Call sign | Frequency | City of license | FID | Class | ERP (W) | Height (m (ft)) | Relays |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| K227BX | 93.3 FM | Palm Springs, California | 155851 | D | 10 | 143.1 m (469 ft) | KVLA-FM |
| K210AD | 89.9 FM | Santa Barbara, California | 33702 | D | 10 | 270 m (890 ft) | KJAI |
| KPCC-FM1 | 89.3 FM | Santa Clarita, California | 178427 | D | 3 | 678 m (2,224 ft) | [needs update] |
| KPCC-FM2 | 89.3 FM | West Los Angeles, California | 198690 | D | 350 | −17 m (−56 ft) | KPCC (booster) |
| KPCC-FM3 | 89.3 FM | West Los Angeles, California | 198689 | D | 700 | −17 m (−56 ft) | KPCC (booster) |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
